Contributed by Michele Grossman-Alexander, Ohio State University

Stereotyping and Prejudice

Psychology 375
Spring 1997

Given that your education on the topics we have discussed in this class should extend beyond the classroom and continue after this quarter is over, I (with the help of some of your fellow students) have put together a reading and a movie list. Enjoy.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Abu-Jamal, Mumia. (1995). Live from Death Row. Discusses the criminal justice system in the U.S. and explores institutionalized racism. Addison-Wesley Publishers.

Allport, G.W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley. The classic in the field--surprisingly contemporary.

Altmeyer, B. (1988). Enemies of freedom . Understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

A Common Destiny. This National Research Council study, edited by black economist Gerald David Jaynes and white sociologist Robin M. Williams, Jr., provides what many regard as the most definitive report on race conclusions is that "the status of black Americans today can be characterized as a glass that is half full - if measured by the progress since 1939 - or as a glass that is half empty - if measured by the persisting disparities between black and white Americans since the early 1970's."

Delaney Sisters. Having Our Say. Autobiography of their lives as African American sisters growing up in the 20th century. They wrote the book when one was 106, the other 108.

Erdoes, Richard. Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions. (1972)

Ford, Clyde. (1994). We Can All Get Along. Includes 50 steps you can take to held end racism. Dell Publishing.

Hooks, Bell. (1990). Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. She

explores ways in which sexism and racism may be successfully fought.

Keen, Sam. (1991). Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man. One of the most popular introductions to the men's movement. Explores the meaning of American masculinity.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. (1967). Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?. Dr. King's historical perspective on the economic and cultural motives for racism.

Kozol, Johnathan. (1991). Savage Inequalities. Details the inequalities among children throughout the American school system. Crown Publishers

Levin, J., & McDevitt, J. (1993). Hate crimes: The rising tide if bigotry and bloodshed. New York: Plenum.

Mathabane, Mark. Karrif Boy. The true story of a black youth's coming of age in Apartheid South Africa. Plume Press.

Morrison, Gayle. To Move the World.

Rutstein, Nathan. (1993). Healing Racism in America. A prescription for the disease. Includes essays on race relations in the U.S. Whitcomb Publishers.

FILM AND VIDEO SUGGESTIONS

Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief._(29) minutes). Documentary of five Native American women who are now successful in various careers: band chief, employment counselor, government minister, lawyer.

Japanese Woman. (52 minutes). Documentary that examines the status of women in Japan.

Do the Right Thing. (1989). Spike Lee's film about racial tension in a neighborhood in a borough of New York City.

The Issue is Race. A panel discussion in a town hall format, hosted by Phil Donahue. Participants include activists, scholars, and policy makers debating racial issues.

The Birth of A Nation. (1950). Interesting film on anti-black/ pro white supremacy propaganda. Scary.

The Impossible Takes A Little Longer. This film shows the work and personal lives of five physically disabled women. They demonstrate their imaginative use of abilities in the workforce, their social lives, and at home.

Pockets of Hate. The danger of racial crime is explored, focusing on why young people are acquiring racist attitudes and violently acting on their prejudices.

The Secret of the Sexes. Explores male and female stereotypes and how they are consciously and unconsciously maintained.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). A young woman returns to her parents upper-middle class home with a surprise dinner guest--her black fiancé. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, won two.

Jungle Fever (l99l). Racial conflicts arise when a black man falls in love with an Italian woman.

The Psychology of Neo-Nazism: Another Journey by Train to Auschwitz. Four young, articulate neo-Nazis from England, France, Austria, and Germany travel across Europe discussing their love of Hitler and their disbelief in the Holocaust. In Berlin they unexpectedly visit Auschwitz.

Skinheads USA: The Pathology of Hate. This program takes viewers for an extended look at the alarming phenomenon of white supremacy and hate groups, with an unprecedented inside look at actual neo-Nazis.

Racial and Sexual Stereotyping. This specially adapted Phil Donahue program focuses on how prejudices are handed on from generation to generation and how teens deal with them on a daily basis.

Toying with their Future. (1990). Discusses male and female toys and their impact on boys and girls. This is one of the most effective films on gender and childhood.

Running Mate: Gender and Politics in the Editorial Cartoons. (1993). A film about vice-presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, and the gender bias among political cartoonists.

Stale Roles and Tight Buns: Images of Men in Advertising. (1988). In the tradition of the popular classic, Killing Us Softly. this film focuses on male gender stereotypes in advertising.

Blue Collar and Buddha (57 minutes, 1990, FL). This dramatic documentary sensitively explores the dilemma of a community of Laotian refugees, torn between preserving their cultural identity and adapting to their new life in America.

Pocket of Hate (26 minutes, 1993, FSH). This programs examines the particular danger of hate crimes, and it seeks to determine where young people are picking up racists attitudes and why they are becoming more comfortable in acting out their prejudices.

Pink Triangles. (35 minutes). This film examines homophobia, relating it to sexism and racism. It features interviews with gay and lesbian activists as well as people with strong prejudices against homosexuality.

Racism in America (26 minutes, 1993, FSH) This program examines the resurgence of visible bigotry and racially motivated acts of violence and vandalism, exploring the reasons why some people are venting anger against minorities and discussing the social and economic implications of racists acts. It also looks at how a community successfully responded to its racial problems.

Sexual Stereotypes in Media; Superman & the Bride. (40 minutes, 1993, FSH). He is strong, decisive, smart-- a mover and shaker. She is fragile, clinging, slightly stupid, and totally incompetent except finding Mr. Right and devoting herself ever after to knitting booties for baby and waiting for hubby to romance her. This program shows how pervasive these images are of man as Superman and woman as his slavish bride-- on film and TV, in the fiction of view women as well as men commonly accept it.

Facing Racism. (60 minutes) This emotionally charged program follows five participants of varied ethnic and racial backgrounds through a three-day Unlearning Racism workshop. During the group discussions tempers flare and hidden feelings are revealed. The five main participants later meet to reflect on the honest sharing of feelings that took place during the workshop. This program represents both a strong statement on the complex issues surrounding racism and an honest depiction of the difficulties involved in resolving them.

The Differences Between Men and Women. (23 minutes) The debate still rages: are the social and psychological differences between men and women conditioned by biology or by familial and social environment? This program presents the opinion of scientists who reach beyond the obvious physical differences between the two sexes to others that are not so visible.

Domino: Interracial People and the Search for Identity. (44 minutes) This program explores the stories of six interracial people and their quest to forge their own identities. Through intensely personal stories, each person profiled in the program recounts how their identity is affected by the experience of their parents' history, family politics, and the hierarchies of race, gender roles, and class.

Ethnic Notions. (56 minutes) This program has become the most widely used film on racial prejudice ever produced. It exposes the evolution of deeply rooted anti-black stereotypes in America culture: loyal Toms, carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, buffoonish Coons and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. Eminent scholars demonstrate how these demeaning stereotypes have been used to rationalize the dehumanization and exploitation of black people

Heroes and Strangers. (29 minutes). Award-winning film about the roles of fathers in the family.

Silent Pioneers: Gay and Lesbian Elders. (1995, 42 minutes). This film explores the lives of elderly gay men and lesbian women, including a Black great-grandmother.

Skin Deep (56 minutes) America's college campuses have been the site of some of the most acrimonious confrontations over cultural diversity but also some of the most innovative techniques for dealing with it. Skin Deep follows the eye-opening journey a group of college students as they awkwardly reveal their prejudices, then we follow them home to uncover the roots of their beliefs.

The Willmar 8. (56 minutes) This film tells the story of eight unassuming, church-going women in a small town in Minnesota town who launched the longest bank strike in American history. Passed over repeatedly for managerial positions despite years of service, the woman walked the picket line through two bitter Minnesota winters taking on the entire town to struggle for equal opportunity and pay equity for women.

Black Is ... Black Ain't. (86 minutes) This film is a healing call for a more inclusive definition of blackness. The film explores the divisive effects of sexism, homophobia, colorism and cultural nationalism in the African American family, church and community.

A Question of Color. (56 minutes) This courageous documentary is the first to confront a painful and long taboo subject: the disturbing feelings many African Americans harbor about themselves and their appearance. African American filmmaker Kathe Sandier digs into the often subconscious world of "color consciousness," a caste system based on how closely skin color, hair and facial features conform to a European ideal.